Jesus said:

Come to me, all you that are weary

and are carrying heavy burdens,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

—from Matthew 11:28-30, NRSV

Gracious God, father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give you thanks that in trouble we may turn to you. Into your strong arms we may offload our sins and griefs. They are too much for us, too heavy for us, too enduring for us. We can barely carry them to you in prayer. But you take them to make us light. Gracious God, father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give you thanks that in trouble we may turn to you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Joseph M. Scriven wrote "What a Friend" to comfort his sick mother in Dublin, possibly right after the death of his second fiancée. When asked by a neighbor about his writing of the text, Scriven modestly commented, “The Lord and I did it between us.” The text was published anonymously in Horace Hastings's Social Hymns, Original and Selected (1865), but Scriven was given proper credit in Hastings's Songs of Pilgrimage (1886). Ira D. Sankey included the text, set to the familiar tune by Charles C. Converse, in his various hymnals (from 1875 on).

 

A member of the Plymouth Brethren, Joseph Scriven wrote these words to comfort his mother (and no doubt himself) following the death of his second fiancée; his first had died some years earlier. Converse composed the music for these words; the union of text and tune were cemented in Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs (1875) compiled by Philip Bliss and Ira Sankey.

 

CONVERSE (also called ERIE, named for the city in Pennsylvania where the composer lived for many years) was written in 1868 and published two years later in his Silver Wings under the pseudonym Karl Reden. The tune has also been called "Friendship."

This hymn text is one of the most loved from the 19th century and still published in most North American hymnals to the tune CONVERSE. Some hymnals, including Lift Up Your Hearts, have also combined the text with other tunes, especially BEACH SPRING. The 1987 Psalter Hymnal decided to publish this text only to BEACH SPRING, a combination that has also become loved. But the decision not to include CONVERSE as well was soon regretted, resulting in possibly more complaints than all other complaints combined about changes from the earlier edition of the Psalter Hymnal.

Joseph M. Scriven (b. Seapatrick, County Down, Ireland, 1819; d. Bewdley, Rice Lake, ON, Canada, 1886), an Irish immigrant to Canada, wrote this text near Port Hope, Ontario, in 1855. Because his life was filled with grief and trials, Scriven often needed the solace of the Lord as described in his famous hymn.
Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, he enrolled in a military college to prepare for an army career. However, poor health forced him to give up that ambition. Soon after came a second blow—his fiancée died in a drowning accident on the eve of their wedding in 1844. Later that year he moved to Ontario, where he taught school in Woodstock and Brantford. His plans for marriage were dashed again when his new bride-to-be died after a short illness in 1855. Following this calamity Scriven seldom had a regular income, and he was forced to live in the homes of others. He also experienced mistrust from neighbors who did not appreciate his eccentricities or his work with the underprivileged. A member of the Plymouth Brethren, he tried to live according to the Sermon on the Mount as literally as possible, giving and sharing all he had and often doing menial tasks for the poor and physically disabled. Because Scriven suffered from depression, no one knew if his death by drowning in Rice Lake was suicide or an accident.